In the first week of December 2018, the European potato science community convened in Rostock-Warnemuende for the 19th Joint Meeting of EAPR Section ‘Breeding & Varietal Assessment’ and EUCARPIA Section ‘Potatoes’.
The meeting was organised by Vanessa Prigge and Klaus J. Dehmer and chaired by Domenico Carputo
The meeting was organised by Vanessa Prigge from Solana and Klaus J. Dehmer from the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK). It took place at Hotel Neptun, located directly at the beachfront of the Baltic Sea. The meeting venue not only offered excellent facilities and pleasant views across the sea but was also perfectly suited to allow for a post-conference excursion to see potato activities at Gross Luesewitz. After a welcome reception on Monday, Dec 3, the participants enjoyed two full days of talks and poster sessions including a cultural evening the and conference dinner, followed by a half day of talks and a post-conference excursion to the village of Gross Luesewitz on Thursday, Dec 6. During the excursion, participants explored the potato pre-breeding activities at the Julius Kuehn Institute (Federal Research Center for Cultivated Plants), visited IPK’s Potato Collections as a part of the German Federal ex situ Genebank, and toured the facilities of the potato breeding company NORIKA.
122 participants from 27 countries - mostly from Europe, but also from Peru, Colombia, Kenya and the USA - attended the conference featuring 10 keynote lectures as well as 31 additional talks and 29 poster presentations. Abstracts will be published in one of the 2020 issues of Potato Research.
The cultural highlight of this conference was a boat trip on river Warnow to visit the Christmas market in the city of Rostock, the largest of its kind in Northern Germany whose beginnings trace back to the late Middle Ages. This trip was kindly sponsored by Solana, BNA, and NORIKA and was thoroughly enjoyed by all participants. Overall, a great venue, well-organised program, fantastic speakers and ample opportunities to mingle with like-minded potatologists made this conference a huge success. Financial support for this conference from EUCARPIA, EAPR and German Research Foundation (DFG) is gratefully acknowledged.
The 20th Joint Meeting of EAPR Section ‘Breeding & Varietal Assessment’ and EUCARPIA Section ‘Potatoes’ will be organized in 2021 in Nigde province, the center of potato production in Turkey.
